A Heartfelt Welcome

Prayer: Father I thank You for the provision of strength to write this blog, this being an expression of love to You, may it be pleasing in your eyes. Heavenly Father, You are a provider, a comforter, a teacher and more to me than I could articulate. I have received blessings, promises, grace and mercy which I am not deserved of. I thank You for the anointing You have placed on my life, and though time and time again I have fallen short of your glory, you still favour me as one of your own. My gratefulness is abundant and so is my humility.

I pray that sharing my vulnerability, flaws and growth from drinking the spiritual milk as a babe to being mature may help whomever stumbles across this blog, and reads the words on this page. I pray that I do not overstep the measure of faith You have given me, nor my anointing, that I mislead but one child of God or soul who reads this blog. Let me stay in humility and be a witness to the Light that I may direct people to Him.

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Welcome

This is my faith journey. My name is Eli. This was the name God gave me, and the name by which He always knew me, though not as I was always called (maybe I will do a post on that someday!).

Honestly...Welcome! This is an emotional post for me, as in the prayer that you see above this is truly for God. That others may know the goodness of Him, and what it is like to grow spiritually. There is such great power in testimony, because in seeing what someone has overcome, it gives you hope for what you are going through. Often, however, this is not until the end of the journey, but what of the beginning or the middle? Of course, you do not know how it ends, but you can still garner hope and strength that your flaws and struggles are normal.

The good news for you, is I am basically at the beginning of my faith journey. Spiritually a babe drinking milk. God has faitfully kept me from disaster all my life, I learnt this on reflection, but it was truly late 2018 and early 2019 when I took this faith journey seriously and was born again.

Everyone is welcome to read this blog, new to the faith or veteran, born again or just curious. Whatever walk of life, Christ welcomes you all, and seeing as no servant is greater than the master, I welcome you all too.

I am not a minister, I am not a pastor, I am just a regular person. I will share whatever I can of myself, both where I have been and where I am going. I did experience some domestic violence in the home growing up, parents divorced though not until my early 20s, relationship issues with my father (ongoing and unresolved), on the whole? My childhood was a happy one.

Neither do I have any achievement which is spectacularly good. I had a tumultuous period in high school (though still left with As and Bs), paid for my own university degree and graduated with honours (though on my path I have no used it), I have lived abroad by myself for a time (invaluable!). I do not descend from great material wealth, nor have experienced the depths of material poverty.

I am an imperfect being brought to Christ, by the grace of God, that I may know and serve Him.

I say that to manage your expectation, I do not pretend to have this all figured out. This is my walk by faith, stumbling and all.

More so I say this inspire you, that anything you see here is possible for you too. That the grace and mercy I have received from God is for you too. That God does not require you to reach a standard before You come to Him. That you may come as you are. This is how gracious God is.

In coming to God however, be prepared for a rollercoaster journey. To be born again means you will HAVE to forsake, some (and this is an entire post if not sermon), of your old ways and relinquish your pride that God may shape you. Frankly, this means acknowledging your sin, actually doing something about it and changing your life. Accepting his chastening for He does this to those whom He loves.

Do not be afraid of this, I am still sinning in ways and asking forgiveness daily, but my heart is for God and I am trying. Be prepared to try. Do not try to manipulate the Bible, or when God does speak to you (which He does) justify your behaviour. Come to God, give him your heart and see where He will take you!

This is the journey that I am on. A sinner no greater than anyone else, searching and finding his identity in Christ, and giving an honest account of what that's like.

I'm approaching 30 for context. So whilst there will be no profane language, and all are welcome, I can't promise that some of the topics will not be mature. I pray that I am led by the Spirit in all that I do, and this is no different, so be prepared for anything.

So there is no theme to this blog, it is a journey. I am excited to share this with you all.